I spoke a little bit about the comparable suffering that could be caused by death and life in regards to "The Trojan Women" in my last blog, but I now think that different characters should be looked at. In some many ways I feel, and others may not agree, that Cassandra suffers the most in The Trojan Women.
Although Cassandra did not experience the death of a child, she did endure much suffering. As a young woman Cassandra was given the gift of prophesy, but later a curse was added to it. She has the ability to see what the future will hold, but nobody will believe her visions. Cassandra foresaw the demise of Troy, and even warned her people about the Trojan Horse, but no one believed what she said. Would that not cause unbearable suffering? She saw her country men die not once, but twice. She had to live with the knowledge that her father and siblings would die terrible deaths and that she could do nothing to change their fates. There have been a number of television shows in which a character has the ability to see the future, but in virtually every case that character has the ability to alter the future as well. Cassandra is left completely helpless and is forced to watch as her visions play out in real life. To add to her sufferings, Cassandra has nobody to share her grief with. When Hecuba, along with every other woman left in Troy, learns of the death of her children and husband, there are many people there to share their grief with. Hecuba is not alone in her suffering, but when Cassandra foretells what will happen she is. There is no shoulder for her to cry on, and sharing her visions makes things worse because she is seen as crazy.
After Troy is burned Cassandra is given to her enemy as a concubine. She, who is pure and has not yet given herself to any man, is expected to sleep with the very man who brought death to those she loved. Hecuba moans and moans about how she is going to have to live the life of a slave, but her situation isn't nearly as bad as Cassandra's. Yes, she will no longer be garbed in the jewels and rich clothing of a queen, but she will not be a man's sex slave either. Hecuba will not have to lay with the man who killed her family members, nor will she most likely be given a very strenuous job at all. Don't get me wrong, she suffers terribly, but not so much as Cassandra. What could be worse than Cassandra's fate?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Life or Death....which is really worse?
We have both read Euripides' "Trojan Women" and watched a portion of it on film in class. After doing so, one of the things that the class took from the play is that the worst thing that one can go through is the sacrifice of a child. I am not sure that I agree with this notion, and I feel like it is something that is somewhat contradictory in the text.
I am not heartless, seeing Hecuba in her state of grief was heart wrenching and I most definitely sympathised with her. It would be extremely hard to lose a child much less numerous children. Something that did really bother me about her character though, is her blatant disregard for her people. As a queen, she should consider all of her subjects to be like children, yet she does not even think once about them while she grieves. Hecuba just sits there and wails in self pity without even a thought for the rest of her people who are going through the same thing. Going back to the original topic, when Andromache is forced to give up her child to be sacrificed, it is again terrible. In fact, I would say that being forced to choose the death of your child would be much more difficult than just losing them. However, I feel like in certain situations, such as that presented in The Trojan Women, perhaps death would be a better alternative than life.
Hecuba: Ah, my child! Brutally butchered! Ah and again ah! How shameful a death.
Andromache: She died as she died.--And yet in death she was luckier that I who live.
Hecuba: Death and life are not the same, my child. Death is nothingness; in life there is hope.
Andromache: The dead, I say, are as if they had not been born. It is better to die than to live in pain; the dead have no sorrows to hurt them, but when a man passes from happiness to misery his heart hankers restlessly after the joys he once knew. Polyxena is dead as if she had never seen this life; she knows nothing of her sorrows.
I am not heartless, seeing Hecuba in her state of grief was heart wrenching and I most definitely sympathised with her. It would be extremely hard to lose a child much less numerous children. Something that did really bother me about her character though, is her blatant disregard for her people. As a queen, she should consider all of her subjects to be like children, yet she does not even think once about them while she grieves. Hecuba just sits there and wails in self pity without even a thought for the rest of her people who are going through the same thing. Going back to the original topic, when Andromache is forced to give up her child to be sacrificed, it is again terrible. In fact, I would say that being forced to choose the death of your child would be much more difficult than just losing them. However, I feel like in certain situations, such as that presented in The Trojan Women, perhaps death would be a better alternative than life.
Hecuba: Ah, my child! Brutally butchered! Ah and again ah! How shameful a death.
Andromache: She died as she died.--And yet in death she was luckier that I who live.
Hecuba: Death and life are not the same, my child. Death is nothingness; in life there is hope.
Andromache: The dead, I say, are as if they had not been born. It is better to die than to live in pain; the dead have no sorrows to hurt them, but when a man passes from happiness to misery his heart hankers restlessly after the joys he once knew. Polyxena is dead as if she had never seen this life; she knows nothing of her sorrows.
In reading this conversation, it would seem that Andromache would welcome death. Although she would not want to personally inflict it on her son I'm sure, it seems that she might feel as if it were for the best. With his death, he no longer has to face the horrors of life. His father has died, his mother is distraught, and if he were to live he would be brought up by his enemies. In some ways, I feel like this would be a worse fate than death, and Andromache indicates that she does as well when referring to Hecuba's daughter Polyxena. Had she lived, the horrors that she had faced thus far would be just the beginning. Women who were taken after war were either kept as slaves or concubines. Either life would be a terrible one, not to mention that your master would be your enemy and the man who had killed numerous members of your family and people. As for the shame that Hecuba talks about in the death of her daughter, would it not be worse if she had to serve as another man's prostitute. It seems like the shame in losing your virginity too, as well as continuously sleeping with, someone who killed those close to you would be more shameful.
Andromache seems to change her stance on the whole thing when it is her child that must die. Rather than seeing the good as she did in the death of Polyxena, she only sees the bad. She curses Odysseus and wishes for the same thing to happen to his children. I found this contradiction interesting, and am not sure what stance I myself would have taken. While now I believe that the death of my child would be much more forgiving and less horrific than the life that they would live in captivity under enemy rule, one can never say how they would really feel until they actually experience it for themselves. I think that that is why Andromache does contradict herself. While looking at someone else's child she can see the good, but the thought of loosing her own is overwhelming and she can not see past her sorrow.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Cassandra in Modern Lit
The term "Cassandra" is now commonly used by people to describe someone who has predicted a certain outcome but was ignored. Economists who predicted the recession have donnd the term, as have scientists who predicted mass global warming. Robinson Jeffers, an American poet, is someone who has incorporated this idea into one of his poems. In it, he deems himself a "Cassandra" and condemns many poets and religious figures for speaking and promoting lies. I came upon it in my American Literature II class and thought I would share it with the rest of the class. I just thought that the poem, and the way in which it applied an old story to a present situation, was really interesting. As Dr. Sexon continualy reminds us, the past truly does posses the present.
Cassandra
by Robinson Jeffers
by Robinson Jeffers
The mad girl with the staring eyes and long white fingers
Hooked in the stones of the wall,
The storm-wrack hair and screeching mouth: does it matter,
Cassandra,
Whether the people believe
Your bitter fountain? Truly men hate the truth, they'd liefer
Meet a tiger on the road.
Therefore the poets honey their truth with lying; but religion—
Vendors and political men
Pour from the barrel, new lies on the old, and are praised for
kindly
Wisdom. Poor bitch be wise.
No: you'll still mumble in a corner a crust of truth, to men
And gods disgusting—You and I, Cassandra.
Hooked in the stones of the wall,
The storm-wrack hair and screeching mouth: does it matter,
Cassandra,
Whether the people believe
Your bitter fountain? Truly men hate the truth, they'd liefer
Meet a tiger on the road.
Therefore the poets honey their truth with lying; but religion—
Vendors and political men
Pour from the barrel, new lies on the old, and are praised for
kindly
Wisdom. Poor bitch be wise.
No: you'll still mumble in a corner a crust of truth, to men
And gods disgusting—You and I, Cassandra.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Flyting
What does the movie "Hook" have in common with the books Lysistrata and The House on Mango Street? Examples of flyting, the exchange of insults, can be found within each. Such arguments are often extremely comical, although the parties involved generally do not intend them to be this way. I remember partaking in such arguments as a child, most often with my sister, and I most definitely took them seriously.
If I remember correctly, one of the students pointed out that an example of flyting could be seen in the movie "The Sandlot." I will admit that I have never seen this movie, yes I was deprived as a child, but the first movie that came to my mind was "Hook." There is a scene in which Peter, Pan as an adult, exchanges numerous colorful insults with Rufio. The argument can be seen on You Tube (both links below), and ends with Peter saying, "Rufio, if I'm a maggot burger why don't you just EAT ME? You two-toned zebra-headed paramecium-brain, munchin' on your own mucus, suffering from Peter Pan envy!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMqJr_zRVUM (This example isn't a very good recording, but you can hear everything that is said. In the link below portions of what is said is beeped out.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_fAj571j8
There is an example of flyting, one that could have been similar to what was said between my sister and I back in the day, in The House On Mango Street. The conflict is between three young girls, go figure. They go from talking about clouds to insulting one another and their mothers. The portion of the argument that I have included below is between two of the three girls.
Rachel: You know what you are Esperanza? You are like the Cream of Wheat cereal. You're like the lumps.
Esperanza: Yeah, and you're foot fleas, that's you.
Rachel: Chicken Lips.
Esperanza: Cockroach Jelly.
Rachel: Cold frijoles.
Esperanza: Your mama's frijoles.
Rachel: Your mama's ugly toes.
Esperanza: That's stupid.
Rachel: Who's stupid?
One can just imagine how the rest of this argument would play out. Sandra Cisneros, the author, ends the chapter here leaving the rest to the reader's imagination. We have all been there at one point or another, so this task is most likely not a hard one.
These are just two of innumerable examples of flyting incorporated into media and literature. I hope everyone enjoyed them and that they helped those who were unclear about what flyting was to gain a better understanding.
If I remember correctly, one of the students pointed out that an example of flyting could be seen in the movie "The Sandlot." I will admit that I have never seen this movie, yes I was deprived as a child, but the first movie that came to my mind was "Hook." There is a scene in which Peter, Pan as an adult, exchanges numerous colorful insults with Rufio. The argument can be seen on You Tube (both links below), and ends with Peter saying, "Rufio, if I'm a maggot burger why don't you just EAT ME? You two-toned zebra-headed paramecium-brain, munchin' on your own mucus, suffering from Peter Pan envy!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMqJr_zRVUM (This example isn't a very good recording, but you can hear everything that is said. In the link below portions of what is said is beeped out.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_fAj571j8
There is an example of flyting, one that could have been similar to what was said between my sister and I back in the day, in The House On Mango Street. The conflict is between three young girls, go figure. They go from talking about clouds to insulting one another and their mothers. The portion of the argument that I have included below is between two of the three girls.
Rachel: You know what you are Esperanza? You are like the Cream of Wheat cereal. You're like the lumps.
Esperanza: Yeah, and you're foot fleas, that's you.
Rachel: Chicken Lips.
Esperanza: Cockroach Jelly.
Rachel: Cold frijoles.
Esperanza: Your mama's frijoles.
Rachel: Your mama's ugly toes.
Esperanza: That's stupid.
Rachel: Who's stupid?
One can just imagine how the rest of this argument would play out. Sandra Cisneros, the author, ends the chapter here leaving the rest to the reader's imagination. We have all been there at one point or another, so this task is most likely not a hard one.
These are just two of innumerable examples of flyting incorporated into media and literature. I hope everyone enjoyed them and that they helped those who were unclear about what flyting was to gain a better understanding.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Soul Mates
All of the speeches about love given in the Symposium were interesting, but the one that I liked the most was Aristophanes'. Although I do not necessarily agree with his idea that we all have one soul mate, I like it. People today always talk about their "soul mate" and how there is that one person out there that will complete you. I am not sure if the idea came specifically from this piece of literature or not, but before reading it I never knew how the idea a of soul mate came about. Whether or not Aristophanes' story is where it originated, I would like to think that it is because it is such great story. It makes complete sense as well because if we did used to be one body but were split in half, two people truly would share a soul. When looking at love in this way it kind of does give someone hope and trust that there is one person out there that is perfect for you.
When I read this the first thing that popped into my head was the movie "Hancock." Hancock is a superhero that remembers nothing about his past at all. For the majority of the movie he believes that he is the only one of his kind, but later he finds out that this isn't true. There is one other being like him, a woman in fact. She explains to him that there used to be many others like them, but they all lost their immortality and died. When such godlike beings were created, it was done in pairs. The other was similar to their soul mate. Now, if the two spent too much time together they would be able to live in love and happiness, but they would lose their immortality. I thought that the idea of love and soul mates presented in the movie was a kind of representation of that described by Aristophanes in his speech. Once again, it is an example of how the past can be seen in present pop culture.
Something else that I found interesting was the idea of tallys, or symballem. When I was young I had friendship bracelets and necklaces that I shared with many of my friends. In fact, I am pretty sure that to this day I still have the pieces somewhere. It is interesting that the idea went from a broken coin and morphed into friendship charms centuries later.
When I read this the first thing that popped into my head was the movie "Hancock." Hancock is a superhero that remembers nothing about his past at all. For the majority of the movie he believes that he is the only one of his kind, but later he finds out that this isn't true. There is one other being like him, a woman in fact. She explains to him that there used to be many others like them, but they all lost their immortality and died. When such godlike beings were created, it was done in pairs. The other was similar to their soul mate. Now, if the two spent too much time together they would be able to live in love and happiness, but they would lose their immortality. I thought that the idea of love and soul mates presented in the movie was a kind of representation of that described by Aristophanes in his speech. Once again, it is an example of how the past can be seen in present pop culture.
Something else that I found interesting was the idea of tallys, or symballem. When I was young I had friendship bracelets and necklaces that I shared with many of my friends. In fact, I am pretty sure that to this day I still have the pieces somewhere. It is interesting that the idea went from a broken coin and morphed into friendship charms centuries later.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Test 1 Prep
1. Stycomythia: A rapid succession of one liners (conversation)
ex) lines 441-581 in "Antigone"
2. Hubris: Excessive pride or arrogance
3. Eleusinian Mysteries
a. done: a reinactment of the abduction of Persephone
b. seen: a stalk of corn or wheat
c. said: "rain concieve"
4. 5 conflicts of Steiner
1. men vs women
2. youth vs aged
3. living vs dead
4. individual vs society/state
5. gods vs men
5. Epithet: a handle
ex) trim ankled Persephony
6. Sparagmos: the tearing or rinding of live flesh
7. Anthropocentric view: humans, rather than gods, at the center of the universe
8. Miasma: "the polution," kind of implied curse that falls over a land that has not treated the dead properly
9. Antigone's view of politics: she is not really interested in politics, but believes in devine law over a king's decree
10. Meaning of Creon's name: ruler
11. Notion of a moving target: characters change throughout the story as things change around them
12. Myth of eternal return: endless repettion of things (cyclical)
ex) Homeric Hymn of Demeter (seasons)
ex) "Ground Hog's Day"
13. Who is Hermes like? Stewie from family guy (trixter)
14. Thoreau said that we should read the eternities rather than the times.
15. Who is guilty of taking one who lives above and throwing them below?
1. Zeus (orchestrated Persephone's fall)
2. Creon ("Antigone")
16. Inillotempore: "in the great time"
17. Which two mythological figures are polytropic?
1. Hermes
2. Odysseus
18. 3 Great Tragedians
1. Sophocles
2. Euripedes
3. Easchylus
19. Who is the god of the crossroads? Hermes
20. Agon: conflict
21. "All that is past posseses the present."
22. 2 best thins that can happen to you according to the chorus of Oedipus.
1. never to have been born in the first place
2. to die
23. Sarvam dukam sarvam anityam: "everything is suffering everything is fleeting"
24. Anitgone's name means? "Anti-birth"
25. What injury did Oedipus sustain as an infant? Holes in the ankles
26. Hermes used these two words to prove his innocence: born yesterday
27. What did Robert Johnson do at the crossroads? Sell his soul to the devil to become an epic musician
28. According to Freud, why do we laugh? To keep from crying
29. What does it mean to make something anagogic? going into the hevenly realm
30. Synex: impotent old man
ex) lines 441-581 in "Antigone"
2. Hubris: Excessive pride or arrogance
3. Eleusinian Mysteries
a. done: a reinactment of the abduction of Persephone
b. seen: a stalk of corn or wheat
c. said: "rain concieve"
4. 5 conflicts of Steiner
1. men vs women
2. youth vs aged
3. living vs dead
4. individual vs society/state
5. gods vs men
5. Epithet: a handle
ex) trim ankled Persephony
6. Sparagmos: the tearing or rinding of live flesh
7. Anthropocentric view: humans, rather than gods, at the center of the universe
8. Miasma: "the polution," kind of implied curse that falls over a land that has not treated the dead properly
9. Antigone's view of politics: she is not really interested in politics, but believes in devine law over a king's decree
10. Meaning of Creon's name: ruler
11. Notion of a moving target: characters change throughout the story as things change around them
12. Myth of eternal return: endless repettion of things (cyclical)
ex) Homeric Hymn of Demeter (seasons)
ex) "Ground Hog's Day"
13. Who is Hermes like? Stewie from family guy (trixter)
14. Thoreau said that we should read the eternities rather than the times.
15. Who is guilty of taking one who lives above and throwing them below?
1. Zeus (orchestrated Persephone's fall)
2. Creon ("Antigone")
16. Inillotempore: "in the great time"
17. Which two mythological figures are polytropic?
1. Hermes
2. Odysseus
18. 3 Great Tragedians
1. Sophocles
2. Euripedes
3. Easchylus
19. Who is the god of the crossroads? Hermes
20. Agon: conflict
21. "All that is past posseses the present."
22. 2 best thins that can happen to you according to the chorus of Oedipus.
1. never to have been born in the first place
2. to die
23. Sarvam dukam sarvam anityam: "everything is suffering everything is fleeting"
24. Anitgone's name means? "Anti-birth"
25. What injury did Oedipus sustain as an infant? Holes in the ankles
26. Hermes used these two words to prove his innocence: born yesterday
27. What did Robert Johnson do at the crossroads? Sell his soul to the devil to become an epic musician
28. According to Freud, why do we laugh? To keep from crying
29. What does it mean to make something anagogic? going into the hevenly realm
30. Synex: impotent old man
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Steeling Fate
Like Hermes, almost all of us have stolen something at some point. There is that one thing that you just have to have. Maybe you do have the money to buy it, but figure that there is no point when you can just take it. Maybe you don't have the money to buy it, but just have to have it anyway. Some people steel for the rush that it gives them. Some feel that they are invincible and will never get caught. Different people steel for different reasons, but no matter what their reasoning is, steeling is steeling.
As Kayla revealed in class, she stole her brother's chocolate when she was young. Unlike Hermes, she was luckily enough not to get caught. Unfortunately as a child I was less lucky, and got caught for my crimes. There are two incidents that really stick in my mind. One of the times I stole a piece of cut fruit from a grocery store. At the time I didn't realize that what I did was wrong. I'm pretty sure that the fruit was sitting there cut as a kind of display of what it looked like on the inside. Seeing the meat of the fruit, I guess I figured it was a sample. While my mother pushed the grocery cart I sat on the bottom rack and ate my stolen treasure. It was my mother that eventually saw that I was eating a piece of fruit that was obviously not paid for. Needless to say, she was not very happy with me. There were some harsh words and not so harsh reprimands that time.
The next time that I remember I was very young as well. It was then, in one sense of the word, that I stole fate. For some reason I was attracted to a small pink role of paper in a little plastic tube at the checkout line. I had no idea what it was. In fact, I don't think that I could even read the majority of the words written on that bright colored paper yet. In some ways, I must have known that it was wrong to take the paper without paying for it because I hid it in my sock drawer. I was not doing my own laundry at that point, of course, an my mother found it while looking through my drawer. I remember her asking me where I got it, and I told her. She asked if I knew what it was, and I told her that I had no real idea. She told me it was a horoscope. Once again, I had no idea what it was. The funny thing about it was, it wasn't even my horoscope. It was someone else's fate that I had stolen. Anyway, my mother made me take it back to the grocery store and apologise for taking it. I was absolutely mortified. Getting caught was bad enough, but having to do that was almost unbearable. Needless to say, I did not steel anything again for a very long time. I had temporarily learned my lesson.
That is the way in which I am like Hermes...to some degree anyway. Like it is said, the past possesses the present. What I did was simply another version of the thievery done by young Hermes, the boy born yesterday.
As Kayla revealed in class, she stole her brother's chocolate when she was young. Unlike Hermes, she was luckily enough not to get caught. Unfortunately as a child I was less lucky, and got caught for my crimes. There are two incidents that really stick in my mind. One of the times I stole a piece of cut fruit from a grocery store. At the time I didn't realize that what I did was wrong. I'm pretty sure that the fruit was sitting there cut as a kind of display of what it looked like on the inside. Seeing the meat of the fruit, I guess I figured it was a sample. While my mother pushed the grocery cart I sat on the bottom rack and ate my stolen treasure. It was my mother that eventually saw that I was eating a piece of fruit that was obviously not paid for. Needless to say, she was not very happy with me. There were some harsh words and not so harsh reprimands that time.
The next time that I remember I was very young as well. It was then, in one sense of the word, that I stole fate. For some reason I was attracted to a small pink role of paper in a little plastic tube at the checkout line. I had no idea what it was. In fact, I don't think that I could even read the majority of the words written on that bright colored paper yet. In some ways, I must have known that it was wrong to take the paper without paying for it because I hid it in my sock drawer. I was not doing my own laundry at that point, of course, an my mother found it while looking through my drawer. I remember her asking me where I got it, and I told her. She asked if I knew what it was, and I told her that I had no real idea. She told me it was a horoscope. Once again, I had no idea what it was. The funny thing about it was, it wasn't even my horoscope. It was someone else's fate that I had stolen. Anyway, my mother made me take it back to the grocery store and apologise for taking it. I was absolutely mortified. Getting caught was bad enough, but having to do that was almost unbearable. Needless to say, I did not steel anything again for a very long time. I had temporarily learned my lesson.
That is the way in which I am like Hermes...to some degree anyway. Like it is said, the past possesses the present. What I did was simply another version of the thievery done by young Hermes, the boy born yesterday.
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